dispatches from the new world of work

Fare Hunting

A friend has sent along a link to a Wired article that points to a couple of websites that purport to find low airplane fares. Flyspy finds cheap fares on Northwest flights originating in Minneapolis. Farecast now searches flights from 55 American cities and also claims to predict if prices will increase or decrease in the future. In that way the site helps you answer that often lingering question: "Do I buy now or do I buy later?"

Erik Hansen posted this on 08/21/06.

Comments

It would be useful to revise your post and note Flyspy only covers flights out of MSP.

Posted by Jeffrey at August 21, 2006 10:44 AM

jeffrey, thanks for the info.

Posted by Erik Hansen at August 21, 2006 10:50 AM

I got to see FlySpy in action while attending Mashup Camp (http://www.mashupcamp.com) and was amazed. Not only does it do some impressive prediction, it also has the history of the pricing, providing proof of it's predictions. It was incredible! I think the airlines will need to rethink their strategies as these companies pull the blankets off of their ridiculous fare pricing.

Posted by Doug Karr at August 21, 2006 12:24 PM

Microjets - buy one for $1.5M with 5-10 partners and ride in style at less per mile. http://www.controller.com/modelList.asp?manu=ECLIPSE&pdcl=1

Posted by sean at August 21, 2006 3:00 PM

Flyspy is only in alpha, but that's sure been enough to get it lots of attention so far. The site will offer much more when it debuts soon in beta.

regards,
Graeme in Minneapolis

Posted by Graeme Thickins at August 21, 2006 6:51 PM

More reasons why airlines will have to find new ways of dfferentiating their brand from all the others.

Posted by PaulH at August 22, 2006 3:41 AM